When should you send your wedding invitations?

With so much planning to do for your big day, it can be hard to figure out what to do first. As you get immersed in planning, you’ll be wondering when you should let your guests know the details about your wedding day. Becci Clubb owner of wedding stationery company ABCD Weddings has devised a handy guide around wedding stationery etiquette, to help you plan the best time to send save the dates, decide when to post your wedding invitations and calculate a time frame for ordering any on the day stationery items.

As soon as you’ve booked your wedding venue or wedding service, you’ll know the date you’ll be tying the knot. In all the excitement you will want to make sure that your nearest and dearest keep the date free to watch you say your vows.

How long you have given yourself before the big day will influence whether you choose to send save-the-date cards or not. If you only have a couple of months until the wedding day, it might make more sense to skip sending out your formal wedding invitations. If you have left a longer planning period, there are a few reasons to send a save the date. Firstly, it allows your guests to keep the date free, avoiding booking something else on the date of your wedding. Secondly, it gives your guests a heads-up that they may need to plan to travel, arrange childcare, save for accommodation or book a day off work to attend. And finally, it will get everyone excited about celebrating with you.

Save the dates are the first sneak peek your guests will get of your wedding. It will give them an idea of the tone of your big day, colour scheme and details including where and when the day will take place. The excitement around your big day will start to build!

SAVE THE DATE

You can send save the dates as soon as you have booked your wedding venue, but we recommend sending your save the dates around 9-12 months before the wedding date. This allows plenty of time for guests to make plans but is not so far in advance that the card gets lost and the date forgotten.

If you are getting married abroad, we would suggest giving your guests as much notice as possible so that they have time to make arrangements to be there with you on the day.

On both your save the dates and your wedding invitations, be clear who is invited. Address the envelope of each card to the members of the household who will be invited to celebrate with you. If you are allowing someone to have a plus one, address the envelope ‘plus guest’, so that they know from the start. This will allow your guests to book suitable accommodation if they need to. Generally, save the date cards are not sent to evening guests, as they will not need to keep the whole day free. If you receive a save the date, you would usually expect to be invited to the whole event.

WEDDING INVITATIONS

When to send your wedding invitations can come down to whether you have already told your guests the wedding date. If guests have already received a save the date card, then you can send your invitations a little later, knowing that they will be expecting to receive an invitation. We recommend sending wedding invitations around 4-8 months before the big day. Check with your venue when they will need your final numbers, as this will impact when you need all of your RSVPs back, but usually, 8-10 weeks before the big day is a good amount of time to submit your final numbers.

ON THE DAY

Order any on-the-day stationery items 6-8 weeks before the wedding date. Depending on the items you are ordering, you will need to know your final numbers and your guests list so that you can create a table plan and know the names of those attending for place-name cards. The guest list can change at the last minute, if a guest cannot attend at short notice, which can make the table plan a minefield. However, try not to leave it too late to order on the day items. The last few weeks before the wedding will be very busy for you and you want to allow time for all of your items to be printed and with you a week before the wedding. If a guest drops out in the final couple of weeks, it is understandable that their name will be on the table plan, even if you do find someone else to fill their seat.

After the big day, you will probably want to send a thank you card to each of your guests, for attending your wedding and for any gifts they may have given you.

Traditionally, thank you cards are sent on your return from your honeymoon. We recommend ordering them before the wedding, so that you have them ready to write, and sending the thank you cards out to guests 3-5 weeks after the big day.

For more wedding stationery tips and to peruse the beautiful designs from ABCD, head to abcd-weddings.co.uk.